We were dressed and having wine in the living room when Maya came skipping into the apartment. “Daddy has the rock candy grown yet?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t you go look?”
She trotted off leaving me with August and April.
August shifted uncomfortably. “Listen. I was thinking, April, you and Maya should take the house.”
I glanced over at April remembering she was going to ask him for it.
“No offence, Jude, but Maya needs her own room and a place to play. The house has been her home since her birth. I’ll move out so it won’t be…weird,” he said looking at me.
I rubbed Aprils back, partly to support her, but also, so he could see that she and I were now a unit.
“Thank you, August,” she said.
“There’s a two bedroom downstairs,” I told August.
August managed a smile. “Maya and I found a condo with a pool.”
“You looked at condos?” April asked.
“On the phone. When I realized she was missing the house, and I knew it was time to move on, she and I did a search on my phone. I’m hoping you’ll let her come visit me sometimes.”
April stepped close to August, hugging him. “Yes, of course.” Then as if she remembered that she wasn’t the sole decision maker where Maya was concerned, she looked back at me. I nodded. I didn’t love the idea, but I wanted Maya and April to be happy, so I’d go along with it.
“Perhaps you should take the two bedroom,” August said to me.
April and I had reconciled but hadn’t determined how things were going to work now. I wanted her with me, but I couldn’t very well invite myself to live in her home. At least not right now. But eventually, she and Maya and I would share a home. At least, that was my goal.
Maya came running in. “There’s no candy yet. When can we make slime, daddy?”
“In a minute,” I said, picking her up.
August watched me and Maya, and then April. “I should head out.”
“Bye uncle Auggie.”
He smiled. “Bye cutie.”
When the door shut, I realized I was standing with my family. My daughter in my arms and my woman by my side.
I looked at April. “Want to make slime?”
“Yes!” Maya squirmed out of my arms. Together, as a family, we headed to the kitchen and made slime.
The next day, April took Maya to day camp, and then said she wanted to go see August at the firm’s office before coming back to work for me and Cyrus. “I still want control of my trust.”
“You have a job and a home,” I said. I didn’t care one way or the other what she did, but I wanted to be sure she wasn’t doing it for me.
“It’s more about putting the exclamation point on my statement of independence,” she said. “August and I will always be joined by being siblings, but it’s time that my life was separate and that he understood that I was a grown woman who can make her own decisions.”
“Whatever you want, I’ll support.”
“Whatever I want?” Her eyes challenge me and I wondered what she was going to ask for that I might regret having offered her carte blanche to. Then again, I couldn’t imagine not wanting to give her the world.
“Whatever you want,” I confirmed.
She stepped to me, her hands pressing in my chest. I glanced back toward the bathroom, where Maya was brushing her teeth before leaving for camp.